


i wanna see you dance again

by overcomewithlongingfora_girl



Series: girls, girls, girls! [5]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: ATLA Winter Femslash Week 2021, Awkwardness, Dancing, F/F, Fluff, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, Slow Dancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:27:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29267220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/overcomewithlongingfora_girl/pseuds/overcomewithlongingfora_girl
Summary: When Ty Lee asks Azula if she wants to dance, she doesn't expect Azula to say yes.There are a lot of things she doesn't expect Azula to say yes to.
Relationships: Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Series: girls, girls, girls! [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1904494
Comments: 6
Kudos: 71
Collections: Winter ATLA Femslash Week 2021





	i wanna see you dance again

“ _Obviously_ I can dance, Ty Lee. I’ve been doing firebending katas since I was old enough to stand, so I certainly have the grace to excel at something as simple as dancing.” Azula sniffs, turning away from her friend. Then she turns back, having remembered another point. “ _And_ I’m a princess, so obviously I was taught from a young age for formal occasions.”

Nodding along, Ty Lee waits for Azula to finish before neatly destroying her argument. “Okay. Well, why don’t you?”

“W-w-why would I?” Azula is sputtering, and that’s a sure sign Ty Lee has caught her out. “There’s no music! I, I don’t want to. And I don’t have anyone to dance _with.”_ The reasons pile up, and it doesn’t take a genius to recognize overcompensation.

Tipping her head to one side, Ty Lee regards her friend with easy, grinning patience. “You have me.”

“Oh, of course, because I want to dance around my room with a circus performer.” Azula snorts, and Ty Lee lets the barbed words roll off her back as she bounces to her feet, still grinning.

“Great! Then, let’s dance!”

Crossing her arms over her chest, Azula fixes Ty Lee with a withering glare. “I was being sarcastic.”

“Well, I feel like dancing, and I could really use a partner.” Ty Lee sidles up to Azula, puts on her most winning smile. Azula looks pointedly away from her, and Ty Lee purses her lips. This is going to be harder than she thought. “Look, Azula…we have that thing coming up, remember?”

“The wedding? Yes, I remember.”

“Well…there will be dancing. At the reception.”

“Yes, these things to tend to involve lots of…festivity.” Azula says the word as if it’s distasteful, and Ty Lee has to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from grinning at her sour face.

Keeping up her wheedling act, Ty Lee edges over to where Azula is staring fixedly at the wall, putting herself back in her friend’s line of vision. “I haven’t danced in ages,” she admits, more than a little sad that it’s true. “I’m really out of practice. I’d hate to embarrass myself in front of all those people.”

Mistrustful, Azula’s dark eyes flicker up to examine Ty Lee for signs that she’s lying. Well-practiced in waiting for Azula, Ty Lee keeps still, keeps smiling, keeps her body language relaxed and open, her aura bright and friendly pink.

“All right,” Azula concedes finally, with a sniff. “I’ll take the lead.”

She stands abruptly and then hangs there, apparently unwilling to step toward Ty Lee. Her entire body is stiff, and in her discomfort, she’s scowling at the only person in the room to scowl at – the girl that’s soon to be her dancing partner. Ignoring the palpable awkwardness, Ty Lee steps toward the princess, and Azula almost falls backwards over her chair stepping backwards.

“C’mon, Azula,” Ty Lee urges gently. She offers her hand, and the firebender just looks at her for a long moment, doubt and faint embarrassment warring on her face. Finally, she tosses her head and grabs Ty Lee’s hand.

No, not grabs. Azula _takes_ Ty Lee’s hand, gently, carefully. So much has changed in her since the war ended. Sometimes it’s hard to see, and then there are little moments like this, when Azula is different, changed, gentle like she never was before. For the first time in years, Ty Lee finds herself unsure how to act around Azula. The two of them stand there, Azula holding Ty Lee’s hand, until the princess finally clears her throat. “Well?” she injects the single syllable with as much impatience as it can hold, but she keeps her eyes fixed over Ty Lee’s shoulder as she says it. She won’t look her friend in the eye.

Nodding, Ty Lee steps toward her, and this time, Azula doesn’t move back. Ty Lee closes the distance between them until they’re just a few inches apart. Carefully, choreographing every movement so Azula doesn’t get spooked again, Ty Lee brings her hand down to rest on Azula’s waist. The princess places her free hand, small and warm, on Ty Lee’s shoulder.

“Ready?”

Ty Lee doesn’t mean to whisper it, but her voice comes out so soft.

When Azula replies, her word is just as low. “Yes.”

Ty Lee has taken the lead, despite Azula staking her early claim, so it’s up to her to start them moving. She begins carefully, slower even than the slowest waltz, giving Azula time to follow her. The princess moves stiffly, everything in hard straight lines, holding herself apart from Ty Lee even as their movements seek to bring them together. A few times she stumbles, misjudges, but Ty Lee waits for her, says nothing, just keeps her hands where they are and her eyes on Azula’s face.

Azula still won’t look at her.

The tension in the air is so thick Ty Lee knows that Azula must have noticed it, though she’s insistent on acting oblivious. She’s rigid as a board, her hand rests so lightly on Ty Lee’s shoulder it may as well not be there, and when Ty Lee looks over at her, her jaw is clenched hard. She’s glaring at the wall as they spin slowly around the room.

“It’s easier than I remembered,” Ty Lee says softly, even though it’s certainly not easy, waltzing with an unwilling mannequin for a partner.

“Yes, well…it’s not like it’s…hard.” Azula’s comment lacks her usual bite, seems to have no energy behind it.

Taking a careful breath, Ty Lee tries again, pushing, though she’s not sure for what. “Thank you. For practicing with me.”

“It’s – I-”

Azula’s so flustered she bumps right into Ty Lee, and of course then she’s jumping back like she’s been scalded. “Ugh! This is so _stupid._ ”

“No, no, Azula, come on-”

“There’s not even any music and-and – who cares about dancing anyway? It’s not like I’m not going to dance at the stupid wedding. This is stupid.”

“Azula, c’mon, please,” Ty Lee tries, but Azula flounces away from her and plants herself firmly back in her chair. Sighing, Ty Lee sits down beside her. She’s more upset than she expected to be, finds the corners of her lips dipping unavoidably into a frown. Several minutes of silence pass between the two of them.

When Azula speaks, it’s so loud and sudden that Ty Lee almost jumps. “Father never…” she trails off, and Ty Lee waits, wordless, not wanting to push her. Azula’s glare is fixed on the carpet in front of her, and as she thinks, she twists the fabric of her robe around her fingers until Ty Lee can’t see her hand for all the silk. “Dancing wasn’t exactly my top priority, as a child.” She announces it in the same lofty tones she usually uses, but Ty Lee sees right through her. “I was busy learning to firebend and run a nation. You know, actually _useful_ skills.”

Her voice drips with disdain. Only someone who knows her as well as Ty Lee would see through that to the insecurity Azula is trying to mask.

“That’s okay,” Ty Lee tells her quietly, earnestly. “I can show you. If you’d like.”

She glances over at Azula, sees the emotions working over her face. She’s resistant and then she’s hesitant and through all of it, she still looks like she doesn’t trust Ty Lee, like she’s waiting for the whole thing to be revealed as some cruel joke on her.

After the incident at the Boiling Rock, Ty Lee guesses she deserves that.

Shoulders slumping, Ty Lee digs her toe into the carpet and waits for Azula to refuse. When Azula stands from her chair, Ty Lee lets her head sink even lower, fully prepared for Azula to outright walk away and leave her.

“Ahem?”

Ty Lee looks up to find Azula rolling her eyes, one hand on her hip. “Didn’t you say you were going to teach me to dance?”

Hardly daring to believe her luck, Ty Lee bounces to her feet, an ear-to-ear grin splitting her face. This time, when she takes Azula’s hand, and places a hand on her waist, the princess looks right into her eyes. This time, Azula’s hand rests firmly on Ty Lee’s shoulder, and when Ty Lee squeezes Azula’s hand, the firebender squeezes back.

“So…you’ll want to stay a little closer to me,” Ty Lee instructs, almost breathless with the change in her friend. “And, um, just try to move…smoothly, you know? You can relax into it, a bit, just sort of…yes. Yeah. Like that.”

They make a slow circle around the room once, and then again. Ty Lee picks up the pace incrementally, and Azula stumbles a few times, but soon she’s tracing the pattern with her feet confidently, the little whirling squares that make up a basic waltz. All the time she’s looking into Ty Lee’s face, not speaking. Her eyes are unreadable.

Ty Lee doesn’t know how long it’s been when Azula finally stops, right in the middle of a step. Her hand drops off Ty Lee’s shoulder, and she starts to pull her fingers from Ty Lee’s grasp. Suddenly, uncommonly desperate, Ty Lee clings to her, and Azula returns an uncomprehending look.

“Surely we’re both competent enough to dance at a wedding, now.”

“Yes,” Ty Lee agrees, but she still won’t let go of Azula’s hand. “Yes, we are, but-”

“But what?”

“I…” Ty Lee bites her lip. Azula was honest with her before, about not really knowing how to dance. Maybe now, for once, it’s time to be vulnerable with Azula. “I…I like dancing with you.”

“Oh.”

For a long moment, Azula is silent, but she doesn’t try to pull away from Ty Lee’s hand. Just when Ty Lee is opening her mouth to speak again, Azula asks a question, fast, voice hoarse, as if she’s forcing the words out.

“Just me?”

“Huh?”

“I mean…do you like dancing, or do you like dancing…with me?”

Ty Lee’s lips part, and she thinks hard on how to answer the question. “I…I like dancing.”

She sees Azula’s throat bob as the princess swallows, and the firebender tries to pull her hand away. “Wait! I, I wasn’t done.”

“Well hurry up!” There’s a touch of the old spitfire Azula, so different from the quiet, nervous teenager in front of her.

“I like dancing, but I like dancing with you best.”

There it is, out in the open, where Azula can hear it and laugh at it and needle Ty Lee about thoughts that are almost, _almost,_ treasonous.

When Azula speaks, she isn’t making fun. “We’ve only danced together once. And I’m not very good.”

Ty Lee could spend hours marveling over Azula admitting that she’s not good at something, but instead she presses forward relentlessly. They’re on the edge of something. She can feel it. “I know,” she answers simply. “I still like dancing with you best.”

Azula swallows again, and Ty Lee can almost _see_ her thoughts racing. “But all the boys…” Her voice is almost a whisper.

“There have been lots of boys,” Ty Lee concedes, feeling her heartbeat in her ears, her throat, her fingers where they touch Azula’s skin. “There’s only one of you.”

Azula fixes her eyes over Ty Lee’s shoulder again, as if she can’t handle looking her friend in the eyes right now. “Oh,” she says softly, mouth working as she tries to come up with something else to say. “Oh.” A moment passes, and again, Azula cuts Ty Lee off just before Ty Lee is about to speak. “You said…you said you wanted to practice for the wedding.”

“Yes?”

“You wanted to practice so you could dance. At the wedding. With…with people.”

“I…yeah.” Ty Lee shrugs, bites her lip. “I didn’t think it would be you. I didn’t think, um, that you would want to.”

“I do.” Azula says it quickly, as if she’s trying to force the words out before her brain can catch up and stop her. “I do want to dance with you. At the wedding. And, um, and…”

“Yes.” Ty Lee isn’t going to make her say it, although this new flustered Azula is something to behold. “Yes, um, yes, me too.”

“Well…well good.” Azula is back to being stiff, and Ty Lee can tell they’re teetering on an edge, about to fall into awkward, so before that can happen, she puts her hand back on Azula’s hip.

“Do you want to practice, for a little while longer?”

Once more, Azula’s eyes find Ty Lee’s, and when they meet, Azula nods, firm and determined. She may be hesitant to start, but when Azula is in something, she is in it with all her heart. “Let’s,” she tells Ty Lee, placing her hand on the acrobat’s shoulder once again. This time, when they start to dance, Ty Lee steps in closer, closer, so close they’re pressed against each other. So close that Ty Lee can hear Azula’s breath catch in her throat when Ty Lee lays her head against Azula’s collarbone. So close that when they touch, through layers of skin and muscle and bone, Ty Lee can almost hear, can almost _feel,_ Azula’s heart skip a beat.

**Author's Note:**

> That concludes my last piece for femlash week! Let me know what you think in the comments, or just guess whose wedding they're trying to prepare for ;)


End file.
